However, in May 2008, the California Supreme Court overturned the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.

Since the ruling, a host of longtime gay couples including George Takei and Brad Altman, and Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, married.

But a November ballot initiative — California’s Proposition 8, “Protect Marriage,” is aimed at reversing the ruling. If passed, it would define a legally recognized marriage as between “a man and a woman,” according to the Prop. 8 Web site.